Relatively Smurfing/Part 6
Empath laughed as Narrator's second story came to an end. "This smurf wished to have been there to see the look on Gargamel's face when he got a hold of the crab that pinched his finger." "It was rather amusing to witness as the narrator, Empath," Narrator said. "Of course, we have only returned to that beach one more time to deal with Gargamel and his cousin, and that time they tried to smurf us to sleep with ice cream that had smurfing powder in it, but Sassette who was captured by the two evil humans escaped and warned us about what he was going to smurf, and so we smurfed the tables on him, burying Barbapapa in the sand and making him smurf his own ice cream." "And what became of Gargamel when he tried to go after the Smurfs on the beach?" Empath asked. "Gargamel got smurfed away by a fake shark that the Smurfs were chasing him with, and as he swam for safety, he got smurfed on board a Viking ship and was made to smurf as their galley slave," Narrator answered. "This Gargamel doesn't seem to learn any lessons when it comes to dealing with the Smurfs, as neither did his cousin Barbapapa," Empath said. "This smurf can understand in part why the Smurfs are so willing to be rid of him from the forest once and for all." "Which smurfs me to my third and final story for the night, Empath, about how Gargamel smurfed back to the land of the living with the help of his twin brother," Narrator said. "Gargamel has a twin brother?" Empath said, sounding incredulous. "We were amazed to discover that for ourselves when he appeared in the forest sometime after Sagratamabarb had left it, for we had thought that Gargamel had finally changed his ways and became a new smurf," Narrator said. "Anyway, here's what smurfed place in the story..." ----- One day a few weeks after Sagratamabarb had left the forest, Papa Smurf went out into the forest with Sassette to collect dandelion pollen for his experiments. Sassette thought that it was one of the most fun afternoons she had with Papa Smurf while doing something rather important for him, as she blew the pollen from each dandelion she picked up and Papa Smurf collected it into his bag. Then Papa Smurf noticed all of a sudden that Sassette had a sad face. "What's wrong, my little Sassette?" he asked. "I'm just thinking of Pappy Gargamel being in Hades, and I wish that he would smurf back from the underworld and be a happy pappy to me instead of a mean and nasty one," Sassette said. "I feel sorry for what happened to Gargamel when he smurfed with his cousin, Sassette, but I don't think that people who smurf to Hades will ever smurf back from there to the land of the smurfing," Papa Smurf said somberly. "But I don't understand why he's so mean and nasty to the Smurfs, and most of all to me, Pappy Smurf," Sassette said. "Did I smurf anything bad to him?" "No, Sassette, and you mustn't blame yourself for how Gargamel acts towards any Smurf, including yourself," Papa Smurf said. "He's just a human who's allowed evil to smurf control over his life, and he's never going to treat the Smurfs with any loving care and respect until he learns for himself that evil is not the way for any living being in the world to smurf." "What if there was a chance that he smurfed back from Hades as a changed smurf, Pappy?" Sassette asked. "Are we ever going to be able to smurf friends with him?" Papa Smurf sighed. "If that were possible, Sassette, I'm sure that we could in time smurf friends with Gargamel." "Excuse me, my little friends, but I seem to be lost," a familiar voice broke in. Papa Smurf and Sassette turned to see who it was that spoke, and they saw someone that seemed to be very familiar, carrying a bindle stick. "Gargamel!" Papa Smurf exclaimed. "Pappy Gargamel, you've returned!" Sassette cried out, sounding happy to see him again. Papa Smurf suddenly grabbed Sassette and took her behind a pile of rocks to hide from the man who looked like Gargamel, who just simply stood there looking rather confused. "Those little blue beings seem frightened of me," the man said as he shrugged his shoulders. "I might as well move on and see if anyone else is willing to help me." Papa Smurf and Sassette watched from their hiding spot as the man continued to walk past them in the forest, heading in a certain direction. "Either I'm getting old, or Gargamel doesn't smurf like he's interested in smurfing after us, Sassette," Papa Smurf said. "Maybe Pappy Gargamel did change for the better, Pappy Smurf," Sassette said. "There's something about him that doesn't smurf right," Papa Smurf said as he looked at the man disappearing behind the trees out of sight. He sighed when he realized that he couldn't figure out what was so different about the man who looked like Gargamel. "I guess we'll have to wait and smurf what he does if we should smurf into him in the forest, Sassette. Come, let us return to the village with our dandelion pollen." "Right away, Pappy Smurf," Sassette said as she followed Papa Smurf. ----- Meanwhile, Scruple was still camping out in the cellar of Gargamel's hovel, still unable to do anything about the wreckage that was caused by his master's fight with Sagratamabarb or to get him out of Hades. "This is one of the times that I wish that I was still in the sorcerer's guild, if only to have a better place to eat and sleep and to have someone to talk to besides that Great Book Of Spells that doesn't want to be awakened until the final phase of the full moon," Scruple said, grumbling to himself as he was bringing in his catch of the day. "Having to fend for myself isn't exactly the kind of education that I had in mind for being a sorcerer's apprentice." Then he saw someone approaching the ruins of the hovel, carrying a bindle stick with him. He looked very much like someone that he recognized. "Master Gargy!" he shouted as he dropped his catch and ran to greet the person. "Oh, thank wickedness you came back! Oh, please don't disappear from me like that again! I swear that I won't disappoint you as your apprentice!" "Dear little boy, I think that you have me mistaken," the man with the bindle stick said as he watched Scruple get down on his knees and beg pitifully. "If you're looking for your master Gargamel, I'm afraid that I'm not him." "You're not Gargamel?" Scruple asked, sounding very confused. "Then who are you, really?" "I happen to be his twin brother Gourmelin, and I have come from my travels in order to seek him," the man replied. "You wouldn't happen to know if he lives here, would you?" "This is his hovel...or rather, what's left of it," Scruple said. "It got wrecked when he was fighting his cousin Sagratamasomething, and I've been living in the cellar ever since. The only thing that can possibly bring him back from Hades is the Great Book Of Spells, but the book says that I can't use his power until the final phase of the full moon." "That would be tonight, if I'm not mistaken," Gourmelin said, realizing what the young boy said. "Perhaps I should wait here until night falls before we can conjure up the book together." "You wouldn't happen to be a sorcerer now, would you?" Scruple asked. "I'm afraid not, but I do have something for my brother to use, which I have acquired in my travels, young man," Gourmelin said. "Hopefully we may be able to get Gargamel back." ----- Sassette was enjoying a smurfberry soda float outside Tapper's Tavern in the village when a thought came into her mind. "Tapper, do you believe it's possible that Pappy Gargamel can change his heart?" she asked. "I do believe it's possible that the Almighty can smurf that evil wizard a change of heart, my little Sassette," Tapper answered. "Why do you ask that question?" "Well, it's just that me and Pappy Smurf had smurfed him out in the forest while we were collecting dandelion pollen, and he just seemed different, that's all," Sassette said. "Maybe his time of smurfing in Hades has smurfed to be a better person towards us." "Sassette, you should know that people that smurf to Hades hardly ever smurf out of there," Tapper said. "The Almighty's Son had smurfed a parable about the rich man and Lazarus, of how the rich man lived for feasting daily like Greedy and Nabby, and how Lazarus was poor and beggarly. Both men died, and while Lazarus was smurfed to the bosom of Abraham by the angels, the rich man smurfed down to Hades and was in torments. He saw Lazarus with Abraham and begged to have him dip his finger into some water to cool his tongue because he was tormented by the flames, and Abraham told the rich man of how he smurfed good things in his life while Lazarus smurfed bad things, but now Lazarus is comforted and the rich man is in agony, and besides that there is a great gulf smurfed between him and Lazarus so that neither of them can smurf over to help the other." "Greedy groundhogs, that sounds really terrible, Tapper," Sassette said. "It gets worse for the rich man, my dear," Tapper said. "He asked Abraham to smurf Lazarus to his brothers so he could tell them not to smurf to that horrible place he was in now, and Abraham told the rich man that his brothers have Moses and the prophets to listen to. The rich man believed that if somebody were to smurf back from the dead, they could warn others not to smurf to the same place, but Abraham told the rich man that if his brother's wouldn't listen to what Moses and the prophets were smurfing, they wouldn't believe even if somebody were to smurf back from the dead." "I sure wouldn't want to be smurfing there if I were the rich man," Sassette said as she finished the last of her float. "But I can't help feeling that Pappy Gargamel has smurfed back to the living and that he's different somehow." "I have a feeling in my spirit that there's something smurfing on with Gargamel that has yet to reveal itself in due time, Sassette," Tapper said. "But the only good advice that I can smurf you is to keep your distance from him, no matter how much you would want him to be your father. He's still not someone that the Smurfs can fully trust like our other human friends beyond the forest." "Come on, Sassette, let's smurf by the river and see if we can smurf some frogs," Nat said as he, Snappy, and Slouchy came over to Tapper's Tavern to find her. "Smurfabunga, I'm definitely coming," Sassette said as she got out of her seat and went with her fellow Smurflings. "Thanks for the smurfberry float, Tapper...I'll smurf you later." "Enjoy yourselves and be careful, my young friends," Tapper called out as he watched the Smurflings depart. Soon he was joined by Duncan McSmurf, who was passing by the Smurflings on his way to the tavern. "I wonder what that little lassie wanted to smurf to you about, Tapper," he said. "She thought that she had smurfed Gargamel back from Hades in the forest, my fellow Duncan," Tapper said. "I want her to believe that it's possible that the Almighty has changed his heart for the better, but something in my spirit smurfs me something different." "If only she didn't believe that Gargamel was even her father in the first place, laddie," Duncan said. "That would make it much easier to treat him as an enemy." "He's only an enemy as long as his heart has been smurfed by his own evil desires, Duncan," Tapper said. "But as long as he's still smurfing in Hades, he can't escape the fact that the Almighty has loved him with an everlasting love and has no pleasure in seeing him perish." "Why the Almighty would ever love someone like Gargamel is totally beyond me," Duncan said. "There's nobody that's too evil for the Almighty not to love, Duncan, but unfortunately for those who continue to smurf away from the offer of His salvation, the last loving thing that He would end up smurfing is giving them a fair judgment of their lives," Tapper said. "For there would be no true love if there was also no true justice, and vice smurfa." ----- It was now nightfall, and as the full moon appeared over the sky, Scruple and Gourmelin went down into the cellar to summon the Great Book Of Spells to use its power and knowledge. "Now what am I supposed to do to summon the book in order to use it?" Gourmelin asked. "Speak the rhyming incantation, you dolt," the book answered very roughly. "Oh, yes, yes," Gourmelin said, clearing his throat before proceeding. "Oh, Great Book Of Spells, on the pages written within the secrets no one tells, awake for Gourmelin." The book opened to the middle pages as the candles next to its lectern lit themselves. "Close enough. Now tell me what is it that you wish me to grant you?" the book asked. "Well, my master is stranded in Hades, and our hovel is a complete mess, Great Book Of Spells," Scruple said. "I was wondering if you could..." "I wasn't asking you, you pea brain," the book snapped. "I was asking the person who summoned me." "The young boy does have a point, Great Book Of Spells," Gourmelin said. "I am wondering if there is a way to reverse what has happened to my brother and his residence." "Of course there is a way, you simpleton," the book replied. "Follow my instructions and you shall have that which you desire: Turn back the hands of a broken clock, then say three times the words 'tick tock'." "A broken clock?" Gourmelin asked, sounding uncertain. "But where am I going to get my hands on a broken clock?" Then suddenly a clock appeared in Gourmelin's hands. He immediately started to turn the hands of the clock in reverse, and as he did that, he said, "Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock." "Turn the hands back three times more, and part of that history you will now restore," the book continued to speak. Gourmelin continued to turn the hands of the broken clock back three more times while saying, "Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock". "But how do we know if this spell actually worked?" Scruple asked. Then suddenly, very loudly, the both of them heard, "Scruple! Where are you, you bothersome little pest?" "That sure sounds like Gargamel is back," Scruple said as he and Gourmelin headed up from the cellar to see for themselves. Sure enough, Gargamel's hovel was back to its original state, and standing there was the one person Scruple wasn't hoping to see, but Gourmelin was. "I thought that I have told you that my cellar is off-limits to you," Gargamel shouted. "I'm sorry, Master Gargy, but I didn't know how else I was going to get you back from Hades, so I just used the Great Book Of Spells with a little help," Scruple said. Gargamel then turned toward his brother. "And who are you supposed to be, you ragged worn-out excuse for a human being?" "Don't you recognize me? I'm your twin brother Gourmelin," he addressed himself. Gargamel lit a candle to get a better look at the man calling himself his brother. "Gourmelin...is that you? What the devil has happened to you when you were gone from the forest?" he asked. "I could ask the same of you, since I haven't seen you from the day that I left home to seek out my own fortune," Gourmelin said. "We sure have a lot to talk about, so let me make you feel at home while you tell me what you've been doing with your life up until now," Gargamel offered. "This place has a rather dismal charm to it, but I feel that it suits you perfectly," Gourmelin said as he looked around at everything in Gargamel's hovel. "Oh, don't be such a flatterer, Gourmelin," Gargamel said. "It isn't every day that I have someone in my family who could admire the place that I live in." "I'm sure that someday you'll have a castle just like our dear uncle Balthazar, complete with a dragon in a moat guarding it," Gourmelin said. "Well, Azrael, this is certainly one weird family reunion that I wish that I wasn't here to witness," Scruple said, with Azrael meowing in agreement. Smurf to Part 7 Category:Empath the Luckiest Smurf stories Category:Relatively Smurfing chapters